Church, Deconstruction, and the Changing Internet
Two posts on the internet and faith
I’ve recently written two articles elsewhere about the internet. One was for Samuel James on his excellent Substack, Digital Liturgies. The other was with Austin Gravley for the ERLC.
Deconstructing in the Digital Age
The article I wrote for Samuel goes into more of my story of deconstruction and reconstruction and I look specifically at how my interaction with media played into both. I think there are lessons to be learned from it as it seems like this aspect of my story in particular might have been a little ahead of the curve.
Here is an excerpt from it.
Every post you make, every like, every search, every time you linger for five seconds instead of two on a post, the algorithm registers your interest and feeds you more content like it. The doubts in our hearts are expressed through the movement of our fingertips and nothing we do on our screens is hidden from the algorithm. Our vulnerabilities are opportunities for rabbit holes of content we didn’t know existed to open like trap doors under our feet.
4 Social Media Shifts the Church Should Know About
The other was at the ERLC about four shifts that are currently happening that will impact the way churches approach social media. My co-author, Austin Gravely is doing tremendous work with the American Values Coalition. He is working on a project that will be out next year that I believe is well worth paying attention to. I’ll say something on here when it releases.
Here is an excerpt from that article as well.
We need robust discipleship around our use of social media. This includes media literacy (how we are being formed by media and algorithms) as well as admonishment to engage others with the fruit of the Spirit both online and offline. Training our congregants to use social media well includes teaching, but modeling and displaying the fruit of the Spirit online is even more important. As Paul once told believers in Corinth to “be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1), pastors must model the digital wisdom and fruit of the Spirit they hope to see in their congregants. Through their personal example, pastors can help form their people into the image of Christ, and not into the image of partisan tribalists.
I appreciate both of your articles. Influence from the digital world is the scariest thing as a parent. My deconstruction (not sure if it’s the right word for me), however, came from realizing that my pastor and church of 15 years were leading me away from a biblical worldview - specifically that the Bible is not authoritative. I’d have to give some credit to “celebrities” - authors, podcasters and instagramers for helping me sort out the emerging doubts of what my local church was telling me. The hurdle for me was that I felt like I had no place to contradict an ordained pastor of 35 years with a theology degree.
It was close friends who helped me see that my idea of an inerrant Bible isn’t as radical and narrow minded as my community was telling me and to ultimately trust the Holy Spirit to lead me. And I have found a new local church but i think it will be hard for me to trust fully a pastor.
So I just comment on this because I hear what you are saying about trusting in your local community over impersonal celebrities, but there should be a caution to have discernment with personal relationships in the church just as there has to be in the media. It was ultimately studying the Bible that led me to question the contradictions in my church after so many years of just assuming other people were smarter or more “enlightened” than I could be, so trusting their words were enough.